Expanded local-food system can benefit Cleveland, study shows

Gus Chan, The Plain DealerIf a new local-food plan takes effect, more area farm cooperatives could be delivering all over Northeast Ohio, as in this 2008 moment at Tower City when downtown worker Jennifer Wypasek unloaded goods from FarmShare Ohio.

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- When Michael Shuman wants to illustrate his concept of a bigger, better local-food industry in Northeast Ohio, he grabs two photos of comedian Drew Carey -- one before and one after the entertainer's recent 80-pound weight loss.

"You used to be proud of the awkward, bespectacled kid in class," Shuman says. "Now you can have pride in the healthiest kid on the block."

Growing more -- much more -- fresh, local food can have benefits for all of us, says Shuman, a Maryland-based attorney, economist and author of a new study on the subject.

If we aim for a bigger harvest, with better distribution, he says, we can feed and nurture our neighbors, our job market, our tax base, our environment and our self-esteem as a region.

Love of local food doesn't have to end at the farmers market, says the author of "The Small-Mart Revolution: How Local Businesses Are Beating the Global Competition" (Berrett-Koehler Publishers).

"It's only a fraction of what can be done."

Beefing up local food

Shuman's study, "Northeast Ohio Local Food Assessment and Plan," will be released today at the Northeast Ohio Food Mini-Congress at Cleveland State University, where he will meet with constituents in the local-food community, including ParkWorks, Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Food Policy Coalition, Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative and Neighborhood Progress Inc. Shuman will present it again in his City Club address, at noon Tuesday in downtown Cleveland. Both are open to the public. An executive summary was expected online by this weekend.

A consultant for small-business development, Shuman spent six months working with local-food leaders on his report, supported by the Cleveland Foundation through a ParkWorks grant, on the potential of the local-food scene. Shuman has done similar work in Santa Fe, N.M., and Detroit, but the Cleveland study is his longest, largest and, he says, one of the most promising.

Right now, 1 percent of Northeast Ohioans' food purchases are from local providers, Shuman said by phone this week. With the right moves and the right investments over the next 10 years, he said, we could increase that amount to 25 percent.

He's not just talking tomatoes.

"What we found was that we could create 27,000 new jobs, enough to employ 1 out of 8 unemployed people in the region.

"We also found this could increase state and local tax collections by $126 million per year. And we can say with confidence that it would provide lots of healthier, fresher food in food deserts where there is limited access to stores. It can bring down obesity and diabetes, reduce unemployment and welfare costs. And it could have some impact on carbon emissions tied to food transportation.

"You can rehabilitate urban lots with farming. In rural areas, you can give existing farmers a reason to stabilize and get larger. And it could promote a new era of urban and rural collaboration."

Darwin Kelsey, head of the Cuyahoga Valley Countryside Conservancy, said he hasn't read Shuman's plan yet. He's enthusiastic about the idea but skeptical about the goal of increasing local-food purchasesto 25 percent in a 10-year period. Reconsidering the time frame

Kelsey has been trying to bring farming back to the Cuyahoga Valley by matching farmers to farmsteads. He has long contended that only a 10 percent growth in local food would require 8,000 new farmers -- a tough goal.

Michael Shuman: "We believe we're just scratching the surface of what's possible for the local-food system in Cleveland."

"To be a farmer, you have to be really, really smart and really entrepreneurial," Kelsey said. "You also have to love to work long, long hours, and take huge risks. Some people love to do that, but I'm just not seeing it.

"I think we should go where the plan is talking about. I just can't see it happening in a decade."

Shuman admits a lot has to happen before his plan can take hold. Yes, new farmers and farmland are needed. But consumers need to be educated about local food and given financial incentives to buy it. Small food businesses need to help one another. Job training must be done. Loans and mentoring need to be available.

Shuman's most ambitious recommendation is the creation of a local-food authority, not unlike the port authority, to raise money and help bring together, direct and strengthen participants.

"We do it all the time for transportation, water and waste disposal," he said. "We just haven't done it with food yet."

Shuman said the authority is not just wishful thinking in these tough economic times. Instead of government money, it could be constructed by foundations and a for-profit organization created with private stockholders. If 50,000 people invested $100 each, $5 million could be raised as leverage for other existing money, such as bond sales, new market tax credits and other sources.

Economic-development money would be a prime target, he said.

"By and large, economic-development projects have spent money on things that don't work," he said, referring to the findings of an upcoming study from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Money often goes to nonlocal businesses, he said, "and there's some vast literature showing that locally owned businesses contribute two to four times the economic benefits locally than nonlocal businesses."

Shuman said he believes Cleveland's food scene is a great candidate for expansion, not just for its healthy number of urban farms and farmers markets.

"You can find a dozen other places around the country with a lot of that, but in Cleveland, the politicians have stood behind the changes in zoning to establish farms, raise chickens and keep bees. There is a local procurement ordinance in place, so they're buying more local food.

"Cleveland Clinic and MetroHealth Medical Center have amazing commitments to local food. There's a food-policy council in place and good coordination within the group between businesses and nonbusiness institutions.

"I haven't seen these things in other places," he said. "The institutional assets just need to go to the next level."

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